Two Meanings, One Task
by Artemis Lightmetal
Summary: Konoha High isn’t as normal as it seems. Hyuuga Neji, the resident cold genius of the school, learns it the hard way when he gets pulled into an after school class that turns into a nightmare. Literally. Nejiten, Sasusaku, Naruhina
1. Chapter 1

An After School Nightmarish Task

**Summary**: Konoha isn't as normal as it seems. Neji Hyuuga, the resident cold genius of the school, learns it the hard way when he gets pulled into an after school class. Nejiten, Sasusaku, Naruhina

**Disclaimer**: I do not own After School Nightmare nor do I own Naruto.

_To those who have read (and liked) my story Surviving a Boy's Boarding School_: I'M SORRY!! I'm slightly stuck on it and I was kind of getting sick of having Tsuki and Taiyou be such prominent characters! I haven't abandoned it; I just put it on hold, that is, until I can think up of something better for the fanfic. I left you guys hanging with that Gin issue too! I'm sorry! I'll do my best to update after I get enough ideas! I'M SO—

-WHACK-

Ahem, this is Temisu speaking, the one who draws the art for Artemis. I am afraid that Lightmetal is unable to communicate properly right now in her hysteria, so I will take over the author's notes for this chapter. Don't worry; she'll be conscious in time to do the next chapter. Just as a short note, she wanted to say to the readers of SBBS that Tsuki and Taiyou won't be seen as much in this fic.

The story's somewhat based off of the world from the manga After School Nightmare, but most of the characters from that manga won't appear, and the concepts of the after school class will be a little different from the original. It's mostly centered on Neji. Many things in the beginning may be parallel to the happenings in the real ASN, but the story will eventually take its own course. On to the story...

**Chapter 1: Dreams**

"It's him! It's him!" squealed a few second-year girls who huddled up.

A boy with long, dark hair tied in an extremely loose ponytail walked into the room, an emotionless mask on his face as he gazed around the room. The group of girls giggled even harder when his eyes passed their area, but he only sighed to himself inwardly in disgust. Why were so many girls like this? He had no clue, but he was extremely irritated, even if he didn't show it; he knew that many girls weren't interested in romance, but this school seemed to have an unnatural population of those who did.

The boy, Neji, went back to his seat in the corner. His only two friends had not arrived in school yet, and that was not a good thing. No, he was not afraid of their whereabouts; they could take care of themselves. He knew, since he had been with them for the past half of a decade. What he dreaded was, in fact, going to happen in three... two... one...

"NEJI-KUN!" yelled a girl that he barely knew, running up to him with sparkles in her eyes. He contained a wince at her loud, high-pitched voice. "How are you doing today?"

"Go away," he said coldly, giving her a glare. More and more fangirls accumulated around him, to his slight horror, and all of them tried to get his attention, all at once. Clenching his teeth behind his shut mouth, he closed his eyes and just wished that the particularly loud girls would just shut up and go away. Why couldn't there be more girls like his cousin? Actually, that wouldn't help, seeing that she was as loud as a butterfly and as open as a two-century-year-old house, but it sure beats having ten squealing girls around him.

He opened his eyes and, trying to ignore the girls around him, glanced around the room. As usual, the students were separated into small groups, talking amongst themselves. Six teens were in the other back corner, talking about something. The navy-haired boy (he didn't bother to learn his name) looked bored as he idly listened to the conversation between the girl with the light brown pigtails, the boy with auburn hair and the boy with the brown, messy hair.

The girl with the dark brown ponytail was listening to an mp3 player with closed eyes, and Neji thought that he saw her glare at the long skirt she was wearing occasionally. The last boy, whose hair slightly covered his right eye, seemed to genuinely listen to the conversation, but didn't say anything.

Moving on, he glanced at another group of students. They seemed to be desperately trying to do their homework last minute, and were hurriedly asking themselves questions. Shaking his head slightly, he proceeded to skip the other groups and my eyes went straight to the door. The annoying girls were still around him, trying to get his attention, but he promptly ignored them.

To his relief, a girl wearing a boy's uniform walked into the room, talking to another boy who had bowl-cut hair, round eyes and abnormally large eyebrows. Almost immediately, though, she was drawn by the sounds of the fangirls and spotted Neji in the middle of the crowd. He gave her a look that clearly told her to get over to him, and she got the message. Marching over to his seat, she wove through the wall of giggling girls and placed herself between him and his fans.

"Break it up, here!" she barked, pushing away any girl that got too close to Neji. "He needs his personal space, and I doubt that the definition of 'personal space' has anything to do with mobbing him!"

"Who gave you the authority over our actions?" asked one of the girls with a glare, and was followed by the agreements of some of the other fans. "Just because you're Neji-kun's friend doesn't mean you get to keep him for yourself!"

"Did you not hear my definition of personal space?" asked the brunette as she pushed away a girl who was trying to implant a peck on Neji's forehead. "Get away, won't you guys?"

"No!" screeched one of the girls, causing Neji and the girl to wince. They exchanged glances wearily and turned back to the group of girls. When Neji saw one of the more malicious of his fangirls open her mouth, he knew that this was going to be the last straw in Tenten's mind. "Besides, what do you know? Or are you going to say you, a sorry excuse of a girl, are his girlfriend?"

"I'M NOT HIS GIRLFRIEND!" she yelled, and lunged at the group of girls. The girls dispersed, giving glares and small screams as they backed up. The tomboy was known to become extremely scary when she's particularly angry or frustrated and likes to use weapons to let it all out. Of course, she usually just does target practice.

"Good job, Tenten," sighed Neji monotonously, though it was hinted with gratitude. "I don't know why, but those girls won't get away from me no matter how hard I try to push away. They only go away if somebody else shoos them.

"No problem," answered Tenten, grinning. "Dealing with fangirls is kind of refreshing, really. After all, _the_ great Hyuuga Neji already has problems of his own." That statement earned her a glare from the prodigy, but she just smirked, unintimidated.

The round-eyed boy joined them within seconds. "Tenten!" he yelled, grinning. "Your abilities to ward off girls are as good as ever, I see. But still, I was wondering when you would become Neji's girlfriend..."

"No, Lee... wait, WHAT?!," exclaimed Tenten in surprise, staring at her childhood friend. "Where the heck did that come from? That'd happen when Neji turns into a little bird! Don't tell me you actually thought that."

"Yes, I did think that," said Lee, nodding cluelessly. The tomboy slapped her forehead and muttered a few things under her breath as Neji shook his head slightly.

"Like I said, Neji would turn into a _little _bird before we became a couple," she repeated. This time, Neji gave her a small glare because of the bird comment. At that moment, the bell rang and there was a scramble as the students went to their seats. In a second, their teacher Iruka had entered the room and started the day's lesson.

(--)

The day went by in a flash. Lee had been following Sakura around at lunch, as always, and he had received a noticeable bruise on his head when Sasuke was annoyed with dealing with Lee's excessively loud voice that could have rivaled Naruto's. Fangirls were, as usual, glaring at Tenten because of her close friendship with Neji, but as usual, she didn't care. Besides, most of them were too scared of her to be near her within a five-foot radius.

Sighing, he continued to his normal after school club: the karate club. He was pretty good at Karate, actually, and that was the only time he could let his feelings out (mostly of annoyance and anger, though; he had to find some other way to let out happiness) and also keep an emotionless face. Lee was also in the karate club, but Tenten was in archery, and she was the best too.

After one hour of vigorous training from his instructor, Gai, he changed back into his school uniform and waited for Lee to go back to the dormitories. Unfortunately for him, he was planning to run laps around the school again with Gai, so Neji went back to the dormitories by himself instead.

Or, that was what he thought at first.

His cellphone rang in his bag. Sighing, he stopped at the nearest bench, opened his bag and took out a silvery cellphone that was vibrating violently. He took one look at the number and opened it immediately. "Yes, Hiashi-sama?" he asked, face even more emotionless than usual.

"Neji. Are you properly taking care of Hinata?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Keep that up." Click.

Neji sighed, stood up and started walking. Hiashi called at least once a week to ensure that Neji was doing his duty to protect his younger cousin. He always left out from his reports, of course, that Hinata had a crush on a certain blonde loudmouth who was completely clueless of her feelings towards him. He didn't really approve of... this Uzumaki person, but he at least seemed harmless. Actually, more like an idiot. But back on the point, even if Hiashi didn't mean anything bad, Neji still felt like a caged bird, from the way that he is always checked on.

He wasn't looking where he was going and bumped into a person with an infirmary coat on. He stumbled back ever so slightly and looked at the person he bumped into. She had red eyes and wavy, brownish hair that ended somewhere right under her shoulders.

"Hyuuga Neji, correct?" asked the woman, smiling gently. Neji raised an eyebrow and nodded. "I've been waiting. There is something I need to speak with you about. I need you to come with me." The woman turned and started walking in the opposite direction.

He was slightly suspicious. From the look of her clothes, she had to be one of the nurses in the school, and the students weren't allowed to disobey an authorized adult here unless there's a good reason. Convincing himself that there was nothing else to do back in his dorm other than study, he followed the nurse to wherever she was going. Seriously, he did not want to go to the infirmary and find out that he has come down with a serious disease or something.

Wait. Speaking of the infirmary, they were going the wrong way. He narrowed his eyes. He would've told her, but he decided against it. She had a confident air about her, and he had a feeling that she knew what she was doing... hopefully. That's when he noticed that she was leading him to a set of stairs that he has never seen before. Where the heck could they be headed to? They started descending a flight of stairs that he had noticed was there before.

Finally, at the bottom of the stairs, the nurse stopped in front of a set of double doors. She opened them, and, to Neji's surprise, eight four-poster beds sat in two rows inside. Three of the beds had their canopies pulled down, but the other five were empty. She led him to a table between the two rows and they both sat down. There was some tea prepared in between them. He sat down in one chair while she sat across from him, pouring the liquid into two cups.

"What is this about? Who are you? How come I've never been here before?" demanded Neji, not bothering for formalities.

"You can call me Kurenai," said the nurse, smiling. "This afer school class is required for a select amount of students who fulfill certain requirements. What those requirements are, I may tell you some other time. Only those students, when the time is right, can go down the steps."

"But if this is an after school class; if so, what am I supposed to learn?" asked Neji, taking a sip of his tea. Kurenai didn't answer, and the young man narrowed his eyes. After a few more moments of silence, he sighed and closed his eyes, running everything through his head. The only logical explanation was that this was all a dream, that when he woke up, he would be back to this morning, getting mauled by fangirls...

----/\----

He opened his eyes and opened his mouth to speak, but abruptly closed it. Kurenai had disappeared from the room, and without his detection too. Come to think of it, the room seemed unnaturally large right now. He blinked; he was no longer sitting in the chair, which was behind him, but he was, well, _standing_ on the table, yet the table still seemed pretty close to his face. He looked down at his reflection on the tabletop and if he had less control over his actions, he would have yelped. Loudly.

His reflection was not him. Heck, it wasn't even human. He had turned into a brown bird with white streaks.

A _tiny_ bird, at that.

There were some footsteps behind him and he whirled around, or rather, hopped around, ready to defend himself the best he could from upcoming danger, though that's not saying much. Someone was descending the stairs that he had used to get down to this cursed place. His feathers bristled, taking a step back with his claws, getting his arms ready, though they turned out to be wings, obviously.

There was a sound of three sets of footsteps instead of one set. Slowly, the door creaked open and then pushed full way. Standing at the door were, indeed, two people, if you could call them that.

One of them had long silver hair tied in a high ponytail with a red ribbon. She was wearing a pale yellow dress that ended right at her ankles that flowed behind her as she walked, tied by a black sash. Around her dress' collar was something that looked like a scarf worn in a necktie-like fashion. Around her neck was a gray choker, an oval, light blue stone in the middle. Her eyes were a piercing yellow color as she scanned the room, though they were not devoid of life and mischievousness. She had two separate rods in both hands that were a metallic grey color.

The one behind her was a male with red-orange hair that was cut short, yet it was still a bit longer than normal boy-cuts. His eyes were sky blue and a bit more serious, yet they still had significant life in them. He wore a golden yellow vest on top of a pure white t-shirt. An oval jewel was on the right side of his collar. His shorts were a fiery red color. He, too, scanned the room along with his companion.

The last one who came in was the strangest out of all of them. She was pitch black from head to toe; even her clothes were pitch black. She was like a shadow, actually. In fact, she seemed to be a little more flatter than the rest of them. Out of what Neji could make out, the girl had hair that ended right above the middle of her back, but that was it.

The silver-haired girl sighed. "It really is just us here now. What do you two propose we do now?" she asked her two companions. They all had a necklace attached to them in some way or another, and all had one or twolarge beads on them. The shadow-girl's necklace was the only thing that wasn't pitch black.

"I have no idea, Gin (pronounced Geen, with a hard G)," sighed the boy, but was interrupted from talking further when the shadow-girl lifted up an arm and pointed at the table Neji perched at. "Hm? What is it, Kage (pronounced KAH-gey)?" he asked, and then spotted bird-Neji. "Ah! So we have new classmate."

"Kagayaki (pronounced kah-gah-YAH-kee), that's obvious," teased the girl named Gin, and walked to Neji. He instinctively flew up and started pecking the girl. "ITAI! That hurts! We're trying to help you, idiot!" she yelled, fending off Neji with her right rod. Neji landed back on the table, giving her a glare. Out of the corner of his small eyes, he thought he saw the girl referred to as Kage gasp, putting a hand over where her heart should have been.

"Where am I?" he demanded in, to his dismay, an unusually higher-pitched voice. The boy called Kagayaki sniggered as he, along with Kage, walked to Gin's sides.

"You're in a dream, of course," replied Gin matter-of-factly. She placed her hands on her hips and almost knocked Kagayaki's teeth out in the process with her rods. "But it is your first day, so I imagine that you wouldn't know. I see you were surprised by our presence." She ended that with a smirk, gesturing towards Neji's neck. He looked down again and finally noticed that he, too, had a necklace one, but it only had one bead, like Kage's.

"What is this?" he asked, pecking the bead aimlessly.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," said Kagayaki, rolling his eyes as Neji ceased his pecking. "And yes, you are in a dream. A realistic one at that."

"A realistic dream?" asked Neji, narrowing his bird eyes.

"Yes," replied Gin. "All of us are having the same dreams right now. While we're still here, we might as well explain the rules to you. Well, Kagayaki and I, at least," she added sheepishly, casting Kage an apologetic look. "Kage can't talk here; she can only make some sounds like gasps and giggles." The shadow-girl nodded. "But anyway, let us get to the core of these dreams first." Neji nodded.

"All of us are given a specific task that we must complete before we can break away from these after school classes," explained Kagayaki. "We all learn our tasks eventually, though we usually find out by ourselves. They may be group tasks or single tasks. Once we complete those tasks, like I said, we pass this class and we may leave this place permanently, and go about our everyday lives. We cannot graduate until we get through this class."

"And I have yet to receive the task I'm supposed to complete?" asked Neji.

Gin nodded. "Yes. The three of us know our tasks already. Anyway, this conversation will lead to the time spent here. We get to stay in this dream world for as long as we like if, and only if, we have at least one bead in our necklace. You lose beads each time you are greatly shocked, surprised or hurt, and once you run out, you return to reality. You start with two beads. Since you were surprised when you saw us, you've already lost one in this dream."

"I think I get the concept and goal of this," said Neji, sitting down, but found that sitting down as a bird is extremely different from as a human. "But why am I a bird?"

"We take the forms of our true hearts," answered Kagayaki. "Our emotions cannot be suppressed, as we are, in a sense, the very cores of our being. Most of us don't look like how we are when we are in reality. I assure you, of course, that Gin here does not have silver hair and that Kage is not covered in black paint." With every mention of a person's name, he pointed at the person. "Since you are a bird, I guess that your true heart is somehow connected to freedom." Kage nodded in agreement, as did Gin.

Neji stayed silent. Yes, his heart was connected to freedom; he had wanted freedom since his cousin Hinata had turned three. But then, he was at more of a disadvantage here than in reality; he hated showing his emotions, and he can't hold back in this world. He looked up. "Should I just call you guys Gin, Kagayaki and Kage, then?" he asked.

"Sure!" Gin grinned, patting Neji with her hand, irritating the prodigy. "But you'll need a name here as well. I mean, I doubt many people can recognize you as a bird, so you'll be named... Tori (TOH-ree)!" There was an unnatural silence in the room. The only sound was Kage shuffling in her spot in a slightly restless way.

"You are really unoriginal," sighed Kagayaki. Tori, after all, meant "bird" in Japanese, which was the language they were currently speaking. "You were the one who named the two of us as well." As a side note, Gin means silver, Kagayaki means shine, and Kage means shadow.

"Shut up," growled Gin playfully, hitting Kagayaki behind the head with her hand.

There was another silence in the room, and then Neji thought that this was enough. He looked up at the three towering human forms.

"How do you exit from this place? I think that I've been here long enough for a day," he said. Gin and Kagayaki blinked, and he imagined that Kage would have as well.

"You want to leave?" she asked, surprised, but shrugged. "Suit yourself. There's only one way I can think of right now, so forgive me next time, all right?" Neji was looking at her questioningly. In a swift movement, however, she had brought her rod up and struck the little bird.

He yelled out in pain as the last bead on his necklace broke apart. Kage yelped and ran forward, cradling the fading image in her hands. Her own bead was breaking. When it shattered, she looked at Gin with something that could have been a scowl or glare before she, too, disappeared.

"That was unnecessary," said Kagayaki, sweat dropping. "You didn't have to hurt him that hard to get him to go back to the real world."

Gin shrugged and glanced at their necklaces. They were all still complete. "Well, true," she admitted. "But that was a quick way."

They passed a few more minutes in silence, looking around aimlessly. Kagayaki spoke first to disrupt the quiet. "Do you think that we've found the fifth pair that we can do our task on?" he asked, smirking.

"Kage and Tori, huh?" Gin glanced back at the place where they disappeared. "I think it would do very well." She also smirked. "This will be very interesting indeed, won't it?"

"Agreed." The two dreamers turned and walked back towards the double doors. As they went, the light glimmered off of the jewel on Gin's necklace. A faint figure was revealed inside.

It was a girl in a slightly fetal position, sleeping.

----\/----

Neji sat up, startled. He was still in the infirmary, but now, he was thankfully sitting on a chair and was back to his normal size. He glared at Kurenai, who was smiling serenely at him.

"What was that about?" he asked harshly, suppressing the urge to knock the cup off the table. It was probably drugged, which would have explained him falling asleep immediately and him not seeing Kurenai drink hers.

"That," she said, "was your first class. I'm assuming that the others have already informed you on the rules and objectives Remember; this after school program only meets every Wednesday immediately after school, though the dreams won't start until the bell rings."

Neji pondered this, sighed and silently nodded. He had to do this, or else he may never get out of this strange basement.

(--)

After he walked up the stairs, he only had to go a short distance until he ran into Lee and Tenten. Tenten looked slightly disgruntled as she whacked him over the head, growling, "We were looking everywhere for you, you idiot! Where the heck were you? Lee even went back to the dormitories after he finished his laps with Gai-sensei, and there wasn't even a trace of you having entered your room!"

"I was pulled back by a teacher," said Neji emotionlessly, as he suppressed the urge to show that he was still slightly traumatized by Gin's rod, which he was sure had cracked every bone in his bird-self. Tenten raised an eyebrow, wondering what Neji did that was so unworldly this time, but shrugged it off.

"Come on; we'll be late for dinner at this rate," sighed Tenten. Neji blinked. Was it just him, or was Lee unusually quiet...? He turned to his friend, but noticed that he had huge tears in his eyes and had two slabs of duct tape stuck over his mouth in a wide "x".

"...hn," he answered, shrugging as Lee gave him a tear-filled look that clearly said, 'SAVE ME!' Rolling his eyes, he followed Tenten to the cafeteria and ripped off the duct tape in the process. He was pretty sure that the entire campus heard his yell of pain as the sticky substance left his mouth, pulling the skin before the tape came off. "Tenten, please don't tape his mouth again, even if that's effective."

"Fine," sighed Tenten and they continued on their way.

(--)

That night, Neji sat at his four-poster bed and, ignoring the snores of his roommate, Lee, he gazed out the window. It was a surprising clear night for autumn, and the moon was pretty bright despite only being in its first quarter. He closed his eyes, while wondering, '_What is my task...?'_

The next ten minutes of sleeplessness let him dwell on the events in the basement infirmary. Who was the shadow? She seemed to recognize him, but how could she? After all, he was pretty sure that being a little bird doesn't help people recognize him. The other two seemed to be oblivious, but were aware of the fact that he was a newcomer. Furthermore, the other beds looked as if they previously had residents in them. If so, then who are they...?

(--)

"This will be interesting," said Kagayaki's human form, smirking.

"Indeed," sighed the other, leaning back in the chair. "But... won't Kage's task conflict with ours? I mean, we were told to do our task five times, and we're already working on two other pairs of people. Do you think this will be too much?"

"Well, the future cannot be determined. And I'm surprised you referred to the plan as 'ours'."

"Shut it. It's easier this way, since Gin and I are, vaguely, the same person. Besides, I'm pretty sure that Tori interacting with the other students will help with our plan..."

(--)

This is a shorter length than usual... only just over 4000 words (not including disclaimers, notes, etc.). This is still Temisu, by the way. Artemis would have said that she would appreciate reviews greatly and that it would have helped her with updating faster and getting faster reviews. No, the last two people that appeared in this fic ("Kagayaki" and "Gin") will not be present every single chapter in their own private conversations. This story is mostly just centered on Neji completing his task, but even Lightmetal only has a distant grasp on the subject.

Anyway, thank you for reading. I know it's weird; Lightmetal can get inspired even by the weirdest ideas, though many people do. Lightmetal should have regained consciousness by the next chapter.

-bows and drags off Artemis' unconscious body-


	2. Tasks, Dreams and Misunderstandings

Two Meanings, One Task

Disclaimer: I do not own ASN nor do I own Naruto. I am, however, hoping that Kishimoto-sensei will let us know more about Tenten. We don't even know her last name, darn it...

I can't believe I updated in a day!

Sorry about the little incident in the Author's notes last chapter, but Temisu-_chan_ was getting more short-tempered than usual... and now she's seething because I ended her name with 'chan'. Anyway, thank you for the reviews, favorites and alerts. They are my motivation. Oh, and again, sorry about having about 4000 words last chapter instead of my usual minimum of 5000. I was at a loss of what to write after that, and then Temisu knocked me out. -.-;; OK, seriously, she didn't knock me out, but I needed time to calm down.

There will be more hints of Nejiten in this chapter.

Chapter 2: Tasks, Dreams and Misunderstandings

It was a week later, and nothing out of the ordinary happened. Neji had long convinced himself that it was all a dream, that he was dreaming inside his dream during his little 'adventure'. He continued to be attacked by fangirls, to his annoyance and the irritation of Tenten, who always teamed up with him to get them away. After all, if he tried to push them away by himself, they would just squeal that get excited that _the_ Hyuuga was talking to them, even if he was annoyed. Tenten was famous for having no tolerance once she was angry, though she was optimistic and friendly on normal occasions.

Lee was even more optimistic than Tenten, and a deal lot more emotional as well, just like his idol, Gai. He didn't get Tenten mad enough to duct tape his mouth and tie his hands behind his backagain, but she did have to snap him out of his own world from time to time. He did not make any more comments on how he thought that Neji and Tenten were going to eventually become a couple, but he did imply it a few times, and he earned a bump on his head for every implication, courtesy of Tenten.

Basically, even if Neji showed as much emotion as a boulder, he had to admit that school life was never boring around the two. He should know this, having been with them since Elementary School. That was when Lee had yet to meet Gai and sported a short braid in the back of his head and wore more normal outfits when he wasn't wearing his uniform. That was when Tenten had actually worn skirts in public and followed the dress code for school.

Somehow, things changed once the three of them entered this high school. Lee had heard of Gai who took him under his wing, and they immediately had a relationship that was like father-son, though weirder. He began wearing a green jumpsuit in public more often and talked about youth a lot. He continuously scared strangers, though those who know or heard of him aren't fazed much.

Tenten had apparently gotten sick and tired of being forced to wear skirts and just wore a boy's uniform full-time instead, which the principal had pointed out on multiple occasions. That's also around the time when Tenten developed a deep hate for statements that show males in a more superior place than females and became more feminist. That complemented her tomboyish attitude.

To say that Neji didn't change would be a lie, though it wasn't far from the truth. He had gotten progressively colder over the years, to the point where he only opened up to his two friends and a handful of other guys that were a year younger than him. Somehow, that had actually given him even more fangirls, even though his decline in showing emotions was partially due to the fact that he tried to shake them off. Still, his hardening personality was one of the _few _things that changed about him. Generally, he stayed the same.

On that Wednesday, it was as normal as it can be when you're around Tenten and Lee. He just listened and watched them with amusement even though he always kept his straight face. He vaguely heard Tenten mention a sleepover, in which Lee had responded happily and loudly to, yet that earned him stares from the students. She asked Neji if he would go too, but he just grunted in response. He wasn't one to go to sleepovers, but he finally agreed when Tenten voiced her fears on what the (younger) girls would do to her if she was left alone with them. In the least, they would force her into a dress and have her hair down. Neji imagined that in order for her to be afraid, she must actually look feminine when given the right attire. In the past five years, Lee and Neji have seen Tenten with her hair down three times in total. She had it down a lot more before those five years.

Yes, everything was normal, and he was convinced that what happened last week was only a dream.

That's why he was taken aback when a certain red-eyed woman wearing a long white coat appeared after class. Again.

----/\----

Neji laid on the floor of the hallway, in his tiny bird form, and glared. Why, in all the forms of birds available, did he have to be a little songbird? Sighing, he hopped down the hallway. Nobody else was in sight yet, and he was glad for that. The necklace hung around his neck as he suspected. So, being drugged and meeting "Kage", "Kagayaki" and "Gin" actually happened.

There was an excited squeal behind him and he inwardly cringed, as it reminded him of the fangirls that constantly bothered him. Slowly, he turned around to find Gin running towards him with a grin on her face, Kagayaki trailing behind her. Kage appeared shortly afterwards, as silent as she had been the last time he was part of this dream world. Her movements, though, showed she was slightly uncomfortable.

"What?" he asked coldly when Gin caught up with him, eyes sparkling. She faked a look of dejection.

"Eeeeehh? Is Tori-chan still mad about me crushing him even though it was the quickest way to get you out of this world?" asked Gin, clutching her (precious) rods together with an innocent face.

"That's obvious, now stop bothering him," sighed Kagayaki, rolling his eyes. "Anyway, Tori, this may be a little too 'to the point', but I think that your first priority right now is to find out what your task is. Everybody else already knows theirs." Kage and Gin nodded in unison.

"And how, exactly, do I find out what my task is?" asked "Tori", annoyed.

"...go to sleep?" Gin looked at the bird rather nervously. When Neji glared at her, she gulped. "Yes, I know that it sounds strange, but you have to go to sleep in this world in order to find what your task is. Actually, it's not sleeping, but meditating."

Neji growled slightly, glaring, but went into a meditation state nonetheless. All three stared at the strange sight of a little bird sitting completely still.

Kagayaki turned to Gin and Kage. "Hey, should we tell him that he has an unnaturally high voice here even if it suits his temporary body more?" he asked, eyeing the little bird. Kage giggled a bit but shook her head. Gin just laughed, loudly.

(--)

"Thank God," muttered Neji. In this "dream" within a dream, he was in his physical form, i.e. he was a human being with unnaturally long hair and pale, pupiless eyes. The catch was that he was surrounded by darkness and the only thing he could see was himself (like his hands, feet, arms, etc.). Sighing, he looked around again; there was not a glimmer of light.

As soon as he relaxed his tensed-up body, though, a voice boomed in his head, almost making him jump. "So you're finally here?" asked the voice. It sounded strangely familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on it...

"Who are you? And where are you?" asked Neji suspiciously, getting into a fighting stance.

If we could see him, we would've known the owner of the voice sweat dropped.

"I'm the one who's supposed to tell you your task and I don't want to inform you on who I am for the time being, though you do know me," said the voice again. "The whole reason you're even here is because you wanted to find out your task and get out of these dreams, right?"

"...yeah..." replied Neji, relaxing ever so slightly.

"So let's get to the point," said the voice. "You probably already figured out that your form is somehow related to freedom. So, your task will be to become free..."

"...how the heck am I supposed to do that? And 'your task will be to become free' is too vague," stated Neji, glaring in front of him despite the fact he had no idea where the 'person' was.

"You'll have to find that for yourself, I'm afraid," said the voice. "But that's only half of your task. As I was saying, your task will to become free and strong. That's one of the reasons you're put in the small form of a Vesper Sparrow."

"And why do I have to become strong of all things? I'm the runner-up in the high school nationals in karate. Are you saying that I have to _win_ the nationals this year?" asked Neji icily. That voice was _not_ calling him weak. If it was, it would sorely regret it... though he did plan on winning it this year...

"Did I specify on how you should get strong or what category you're supposed to get strong in? No. So again, I'll leave all of that up to you to figure out. But basically, your task is just to become strong and become free," said the voice, irritated.

"And how will I know that I'm strong enough?" asked Neji with a scowl.

"You'll just know," said the voice in a strange tone... was it smugness? "Hurry up and go now. You don't want to waste your precious time here while you can focus on your task, will you? Oh, and you'll only escape if you become stronger and free in the dreams," added the voice.

Neji opened his mouth to ask the voice some more questions, but then found that his head was swimming and his mind went completely blank.

(--)

Neji, in sparrow form, blinked. Gin, Kagayaki and Kage were still looking at him or, in Kage's case, facing towards him. He looked at all of them in turn. "What?"

"So you're back?" asked Kagayaki, smirking. "I was wondering when you'd snap out of it. You've been at it for at least half an hour now, not that time passes easily in this world."

"Hn," grumbled Neji. He turned his back to them and hopped away, slightly disgruntled. The three followed him.

"So, what's your task?" asked Gin, grinning. "From your expression, though, you're not too happy about it. What is it? Restrain from pecking anybody for four weeks? Stay out of the sun? Challenge somebody who's ten times your size to a fight in the dream? Confess to the girl you have a crush on?"

"No, no, no, and... wait, where did that come from?" asked Neji, giving the silver-haired girl a weird look. "Of course not."

"Trust me, you do not want to know what goes through this girl's head," said Kagayaki, shaking his head. "She's the most random person I had the misfortune to meet."

"Hey! Take that back!" yelled Gin, hitting him in the shoulder with her left rod, which earned her a glare. Kage was probably rolling her eyes. She then turned to Neji and silently asked what his task was. At least, that was what he thought she was trying to communicate without talking.

"I need to become free and strong, though I have no idea what the voice meant," said Neji, trying to jump away from the two idiots. They stopped fighting and stared at the bird. "What?" he asked.

"That's... vague, don't you think?" questioned Kagayaki, raising an eyebrow. "I mean, being strong could mean a lot of things and being free could mean a lot of things as well. Are you sure that the voice didn't imply something else as well?"

"No, but I think it meant something outside of physical strength, or I'll need to overwork myself," replied Neji. He then glanced down at his necklace, and found that there was only one bead. "When did my first bead crack?"

"When you were in your meditation state; usually, we disappear right after we get out of that room of darkness," said Gin. "You're a rare exception, but I have to say that your remaining bead looks pretty beaten up." Neji looked down again; indeed, his bead was cracking, even though it wasn't completely broken yet. "Be careful."

There was a small silence in the room. Neji took this as an opportunity to look around. Once again, the four of them were the only 'people' around, if you count a shadow and a vesper sparrow as 'people', that is. He would've expected to see the other dreamers this time, but they weren't there. They were most likely in some other part of the dream version of the school, but he didn't really care because most of them would have their identities hidden anyway.

His thoughts drifted to the task that he had been given. Who was the voice and how did it, or he, know what his task was? How was he supposed to get stronger if he didn't know what he was supposed to be stronger in? How was he supposed to be free? He had a feeling the two 'different' tasks were somehow connected or else he wouldn't have been given them. Wait, speaking of tasks, he told them his task. Wouldn't it only be fair if he knew their tasks as well?

He turned to the others and asked, "What are your tasks?" All three froze and slowly turned their heads towards the sparrow. Gin gulped and looked slightly nervous, her face mirrored by Kagayaki. Kage shifted slightly on her spot.

"Well..." said Gin, "Kage's is to not be a shadow anymore, to put it in a sense..." There was another pause. Neji looked expectantly on all of them, but they didn't meet his gaze. His feathers bristled. The suspense was killing him... and that's when he realized that the suspense _was_ killing him.

His last bead broke.

----\/----

"Ugh..." grumbled Neji, sitting up in his bed and shook his head to clear his thoughts. So, their tasks were things they would rather not talk about, huh? He looked beside him to see Kurenai sitting on a stool, as if she was expecting he was awake.

"Good job for today, Neji," she said.

(--)

Again, when he was at the top of the steps, it didn't take long for him to locate Lee. This time, however, he was looking for Tenten as well as him, as he said that Tenten wasn't supposed to have archery practice that day. He implied, that he thought that Neji was with Tenten, like watching the flowers together or something, which earned him a glare. However, Neji was surprised that Lee couldn't find Tenten either. So the two roommates decided to split up and search for the missing girl, not that he believed that she was kidnaped or anything. No, she would beat anybody who tried to steal her into a bloody pulp.

It didn't take long for Neji to realize that Lee was right. They really couldn't locate the girl, even after doing three rounds around the school. Neji bumped into Hinata, her roommate, on the way, but his cousin stated that Tenten wasn't in the dormitory.

On the fourth circuit, he was silently cursing to himself and drove himself mad trying to find the missing girl. Finally, he went into the archery practice area and found, to his surprise, Tenten, despite the fact that he had already checked there twice (on the second and third rounds). Five arrows stuck out from the farthest target at the bull's eye.

"Oh, Neji!" greeted Tenten cheerfully. "What brings you here?"

"Nothing, except for the fact that Lee and I have been searching for you for the past forty-five minutes," replied Neji sarcastically. "Lee was letting himself believe that you were captured and needed our assistance, but I was starting to believe him after I went around the school three times."

"Well, sorry for worrying you," she said sheepishly, letting go of the bowstring and watched the arrow hit the target in the center. "But I've only been here for fifteen minutes. I was in the garden before that; there's nothing like flowers in May."

Neji silently cursed again, and mentally told himself that Lee was right when he said she was admiring the flowers. "I forgot to check there," he admitted. Tenten smirked as she faced him, sweat pouring down her forehead.

"Did I hear right?" she asked in mock-surprise. "_The_ Hyuuga Neji actually forgot to check an area for his friend? How dare you be so inconsiderate!" Neji rolled his eyes. Tenten was one of the few people whom he allowed to make fun of him once in a while, and that was a rare privilege. Tenten uses it to its full potential.

"Yes, I confess that even geniuses make mistakes," said Neji. Tenten laughed. Her laugh resembled bells ringing in the wind at times, and this was one of them. However, there was something off about it, as the laugh didn't completely reach her entire face.

"I'll keep that in mind," she said, strung another arrow, and hit another bull's eye.

Neji studied her face. She had a small smile playing on her lips, but her eyes seemed slightly distant, as if she was thinking about something. They didn't twinkle as much as they usually did, and her face _was _paler.

When she missed the center by a centimeter the next time, he was sure something was off.

"Tenten..."

"Yes?"

"Tell me what's wrong," he said. Tenten stumbled slightly as she released her bow as the arrow hit the target, not even close to the center. She looked at Neji, and eyebrow raised in question.

"What do you mean, what's wrong? I'm perfectly fine," she said, grinning. The smile didn't completely reach her eyes, which was rare. She flexed her arm jokingly and walked towards Neji. "See? I'm perfectly fi—!" She tripped over a small hole in the ground and rammed straight into the Hyuuga. He was taken off guard and fell down with her, landing in a rather awkward position.

It was in that moment that two students walked into the training grounds.

"Hey, there's your school bag! Now, can we go back to the dormito... what in the holy name of God is going on here?" yelped an unsuspecting boy with short brown hair as he set his indigo eyes at the two others.

"I-it's not what you think!" defended Tenten as she got off of Neji, her face as red as Hinata's. Neji got up as well and didn't look the two people in the eye.

The boy blinked. "Are you saying that you two didn't accidentally fall down on top of each other? I mean, that was what I thought happened," he said blankly. A strange silence passed and then he put his hand over his mouth. "Oh dear Lord, don't tell me that you two were—"

"No, they thought you were thinking that, not your initial thought," sighed the other boy in an exasperated tone, hitting the other over the head with a paperback book. He had long navy hair pulled into a ponytail that ended in a swallowtail-like style. He turned to the blushing pair. "Sorry about that. Taiyou here can be tactless, slow and simple at times. I'm Kurayami Tsuki, by the way, and this is Hikari Taiyou."

"Oh, it's just you two," said Tenten, smiling. Neji remembered that they were part of his class, but he's never spoken to them before. "But Kurayami, why is your bag here if there's no practice today?"

"I left it here during the free time in physical education," replied the boy, lifting up the bag. "Now, if you'll excuse us, I need to lecture Taiyou in having proper manners and how to be more tactful." With a small smile, he waved one hand to the two as he dragged his friend by the back of his collar and into the building.

There was another awkward silence that filled the air. Tenten's face was slowly cooling down and Neji's heart rate (from shock) became less audible and slower. Tenten looked up at him. "Should we go back inside, then? I have some homework to finish and Lee will freak out if he doesn't find out where we are." Silently, Neji nodded.

(-Elsewhere-)

"Th-that was priceless!" roared Taiyou in laughter as he clutched the railing to one of the staircases in the school. "Their expressions were so out of character that it took all the strength inside of me to laugh at them!"

"Shut it, Taiyou," sighed Tsuki, leaning on the wall adjacent to Taiyou. "You'll disturb the whole school if you keep that up. And I'm not impressed by the way you pretended to think innocently when you saw them in that position; you embarrassed them into oblivion." He casually clicked his pen, and closed his eyes. "Though I do admit that it was amusing..."

"Uh-huh," said the more carefree boy, his peals of laughter lowering into a chuckle. "It's not every day that you see Miyamura Tenten, the tough girl, turn into something that represented a radish. It's even rarer to see Hyuuga Neji, the ice cube of year two, show so much shock and embarrassment in such a short span of time."

Tsuki sighed and crossed his arms as he looked up the stairs. From under his other elbow, he twirled the pen around in his fingers, which signaled that he was bored. "But it is strange how they are such close friends," he observed as he closed his eyes. "That Lee boy too. They seem to be inseparable even when their personalities collide." He opened his eyes again and glared at Taiyou. "You're really lucky that I know Miyamura from archery. If you had actually said what you were about to say, then you were as good as dead, especially since you implied that she was with Hyuuga."

"True," said Taiyou. A small silence sat between them for a while before Taiyou grinned. "Hey..."

"What now?" asked Tsuki, irritated.

"Why don't we play matchmaker?"

If he hadn't known Taiyou for so long, Tsuki would have choked on his own spit and strangled Taiyou to death on the spot. However, the brown-haired one was lucky enough to leave the stairs with just two bumps on his head.

(--)

"...Let's never speak of that incident again," grumbled Tenten. "I don't think that Hikari and Kurayami will tell anybody about that little incident either. Kurayami has a good secret-keeping streak and he's one of the few people who can control Hikari."

"I would be glad to not talk about it," answered Neji, gnashing his teeth together. '_And after four years of successfully suppressing my hormones, they go crazy_,' he thought in a disgruntled tone. Yes, Neji was a normal male and he was not, despite the rumors that have gone through the store, asexual, though he would have liked to be one. When Tenten fell on top of him, his sleeping hormones had activated and it took all of his power to get used to their presence and push them away. Then again, the sadistic little... things... didn't seem to be as potent in him as in other males. Thank heavens.

Of course, they just went back to sleep. At least, he hoped they went back to sleep.

Back on the point though, he was thoroughly embarrassed at what happened earlier. Good at keeping secrets or not, having two people find them just as the two slipped their footing was enough to encourage them to crawl under a rock and die from embarrassment (not that he's admit it)Tenten felt that way as well, which was evident by the small tinge of pink that still stuck to her cheeks.

The awkward silence was interrupted by a large thump, a zooming noise and a tall green blur that ran past Neji and narrowly missed crushing the Hyuuga's left foot. Lee skidded to a stop ten feet in front of the two second-years, and he ran back to them with large tears in his eyes.

"Tenten!" he sobbed as he turned emotional once again. "I was looking everywhere for you! I needed somebody to talk to!"

"...what is it, Lee?" asked Tenten, taking a small step back.

"S-Sakura-san rejected me again!" he bawled, breaking down as waterfalls came down his cheeks. Neji and Tenten both sweat dropped. "I ran into her while I was searching for you, and she insulted my eyebrows again! I-I can not believe it...!" He suddenly looked up. "And Neji!"

"...hn...?"

"Where were you?!" he yelled out, which caused the two to wince in unison. "I was looking for you too! I could not find you anywhere even though we were supposed to find Tenten together!"

"Hn," grumbled Neji. He was NOT going to recount what happened in the archery field with Lee...

"He found me not long ago," answered Tenten, shrugging. Lee immediately stopped sobbing and nodded.

"Should we go back to the dorm buildings?" suggested Neji, since there was nothing else to do. The other two nodded and they headed off. There was a strange silence between them until Tenten remembered something.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" she exclaimed, her eyes widening. She turned to the two boys. "Classes will be suspended on Monday and Tuesday next week because of some meetings that need to be held. We were planning to have the sleepover start at Sunday and end in Tuesday. Will you two be able to go?" she questioned, though it was directed more towards Lee.

"I am sorry, Tenten, but I need to train some more with Gai-sensei! He promised to teach me a strong move next week, and I can train endlessly on Monday and Tuesday!" he exclaimed enthusiastically as he clenched his hands into fists.

"Okay. Have fun with training," said Tenten, shrugging. "Neji, you'll have to go even if you didn't want to. The sleepover is held in Hinata's place, which is also your house..."

Neji stared at her, taking in the information that was just given to him. Hiashi-sama had let Hinata-sama have a sleepover at their mansion this weekend... with all of her friends... whom weren't all sane...

Was fate ever going to help him? Sure, he had abandoned his naive clings to fate years ago, but he still thought it had _some_ part to play in life.

"...like you said, I have no choice," he sighed. "But... I know that there are a lot of rooms in the mansion, but most of them are occupied by relatives. Last I knew, there were only four guest rooms. How many people are coming, exactly?"

Tenten thought for a moment as she listed all of the people in her head. She gulped. "Well, including you and Hinata, then it would be ten people..."

Neji stared her again, incredulously. "_Ten_?"

"Well, yeah," said Tenten, shrugging. "Let's see... oh, that's right; I have a list of all the people," she stated. After she rummaged through her school bag, she took out a lavender piece of paper and handed it to Neji.

Those Invited to the Sleepover at Hyuuga Mansion (the [ are notes by the one who typed it up)

_-Hyuuga Hinata_

_-Haruno Sakura [Agreed immediately_

-Yamanaka Ino [Crossed out- Taking a vacation to America on Friday-Monday, Family Meeting on Tuesday with Naras and Akimichis

_-Miyamura Tenten [Agreed reluctantly_

_-Hyuuga Neji [Family_

_-Uzumaki Naruto [Was extremely excited_

-Nara Shikamaru [Crossed out- 'Too troublesome' and Family Meeting on Tuesday with Akimichis and Yamanakas

_-Uchiha Sasuke [Persuaded after Sakura begged him for six days straight_

-Subaku no Gaara [Crossed out- Family Business

-Subaku no Kankurou [Crossed out- Family Business

-Subaku no Temari [Crossed out- Family Business

_-Inuzuka Kiba [Liked parties_

_-Aburame Shino [Concluded Kiba (and Naruto) needed supervision during parties_

-Chouji Akimichi- [Crossed out- Family meeting on Tuesday with Naras and Yamanakas, Had declined

-Lee Rock [Unsure, possibly cannot go (Tenten crossed it out afterwards)

_-Hikari Taiyou [Thought it'd be fun_

_-Kurayami Tsuki [Mentioned that he needed to keep Hikari on a leash so he wouldn't to anything rash_

-Tanikawa Mizuki [Crossed out- Didn't like parties much

-Hitsujima Ryuhi [Crossed out- Declined with a scared look on his face

-Sasaka Kazemi [Crossed out- Had other plans

-Tachiki Tochi [Crossed out- not a party person at all

(The last six are oc's— and even Taiyou and Tsuki will only pop in from time to time)

"I'm glad that there are only ten people instead of twenty-one," grumbled Neji as he handed the paper back to Tenten. "But still, what will we be doing in the sleep over?"

"Youthful things, I imagine," said Lee glumly; he had been like that ever since he saw Sakura's name on the list.

"I'm not really sure; hopefully, it'll be fun," said Tenten, shrugging. Neji silently hoped that it wouldn't be too noisy, as he needed to study and train. He wanted to stop having to go to those dream classes as soon as possible. It was uncomfortable when he hopped around as a little bird; he didn't like being so helpless. After all, 'Gin' had managed to crush him in one stroke of her rod.

The three went to their separate rooms and met back at the cafeteria during dinnertime. It went by normally enough; Lee was giving a lecture on the importance of healthy meals, Neji was silently eating, and Tenten pretended to listen, though she did ask questions from time to time. They went back to their rooms after that and all of them finished their homework.

In bed, as Neji listened to his friend snore from the other side of the room, he reflected again on the happenings of that day. It was most definitely not a dream now. Somehow, he'd have to figure out the meaning of his task soon or he may be stuck in the classes for the rest of this year and then into next year.

Sighing, he drifted off and shut his thoughts out.

(--)

"...I forgot to warn Hyuuga," grumbled Tsuki as he shifted in his bed. "Eh, it can wait until the weekend..."

He glared soundlessly at Taiyou as the boy murmured something in his sleep that sounded like "I'm hungry" and sweat dropped. Come to think of it, Taiyou did eat very little that night... Tsuki shrugged and fell asleep as well, facing the wall.

All was tranquil in this school.

(--)

...yeah, a lot of you are thinking that this chapter's boring, right?

I'm getting tired of writing eleven-page chapters like in SBBS. I'm pretty sure those of you who have read it have watering eyes from staring at the screen; I'll try to shorten them. And yes, they really were eleven pages (in Verdana 9, double spaced between _paragraphs_.)

Please review even if it's criticism... as long as it's good criticism. And I won't go into another fit of hysteria... Temisu would kill me. But we're friends...


End file.
